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A supporter of Liberal Rolf Dinsdale reacts to election results that show Conservative candidate Larry Maguire extending his lead in the Brandon-Souris byelection Monday night. Maguire won, when all was said and done. (TREVOR HAGAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Linda McQuaig, who lost a hard-fought contest in Toronto Centre, arrives at the NDP gathering on Church St. on Monday night. (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Former Liberal interim ieader Bob Rae watches for the incoming results at the gathering that would prove to be Chrystia Freeland's victory party. (Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Liberal candidate Rolf Dinsdale greets supporters at his party during a tight byelection in Brandon-Souris in Manitoba. Dinsdale lost by a small margin. (TREVOR HAGAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Conservative candidate Larry Maguire enters his victory party following a tight byelection in Brandon-Souris on Monday. (TREVOR HAGAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

OTTAWA—Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and his party celebrated Chrystia Freeland’s victory in Toronto Centre on Monday, but the NDP made her fight for her new job the whole night.

In the showdown between Freeland and the NDP’s Linda McQuaig, early vote counts see-sawed between the parties, which both had made this riding a high-stakes standoff.

As well as Freeland winning Toronto Centre, the Liberals also held on to another stronghold in the Montreal riding of Bourassa. In Manitoba, the Liberals increased their share of the vote dramatically in two ridings where they were all but invisible in the 2011 election, coming within a whisker of an upset victory in Brandon-Souris.

“The message we have received loudly and clearly from the West tonight is keep working hard, keep improving,” Trudeau told a rally in Bourassa. “We like what we see but we want to see more.”

Trudeau also fired a shot in the direction of Toronto Centre, where Liberals accused the NDP of fighting a negative, personal campaign against Freeland.

“The NDP is no longer the party of hope and optimism of (the late leader) Jack Layton,” Trudeau said. “It’s now the negative, divisive party of Thomas Mulcair.

“Because it is the Liberal party tonight that proved that hope is stronger than fear, that positive politics can win out over negative.”

Freeland said the result was a message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, too, who went into these byelections embroiled in ongoing scandal surrounding the PMO and the Senate.

“This is the first act of the 2015 election,” Freeland told several hundred cheering Liberal supporters.

“The results tonight in Toronto Centre and across the country show that the Liberal party is the alternative to the Conservative party,” she said later to reporters.

“They show that Justin is going to be the leader who forms the next federal government. He has done a terrific job.”

Freeland said Harper should: “Watch out.”

“We are on the rise. Canadians want an alternative to the Conservatives and they have found that alternative in the Liberal Party.”

The only safe ground for Conservatives on Monday night was Provencher in Manitoba, where the Tories held on to the seat vacated by former justice minister Vic Toews. Ted Falk will be the new Conservative MP for Provencher.

Former provincial Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg easily held on to the Bourassa seat vacated by longtime MP Denis Coderre, who was recently elected mayor of Montreal.

The NDP had hoped for a number of variables to turn the tide in its favour: the continuation of the orange wave that resulted in a surge of support in the 2011 election; the fame of its candidate, entertainment lawyer and Bran Van 3000 singer Stéphane Moraille, as well as a swing of Bloc Québécois supporters who might vote for anybody who could defeat the federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

In the end, those variables mattered little as Bourassa remained firmly in the Liberal camp.

In Brandon-Souris, a riding that has voted Conservative in all but one election over the last 60 years, Tory Larry Maguire barely eked out a victory over Liberal Rolf Dinsdale. He captured about 44 per cent of the vote — a 20-point drop from 2011.

Dinsdale, who was only two points behind Maguire to increase the Liberal vote share by a stunning 38 points, said the fact the Liberals came so close to victory was a warning to the Conservative government.

“This didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but it turned out better than anyone thought it would, not least of all, Mr. Harper,” Dinsdale told a subdued room.

It was a personal triumph for Trudeau, who wooed Freeland, a prominent journalist, back to Canada from New York City to carry the Liberal banner in the riding.

Liberal MP Bob Rae, Freeland’s predecessor in the riding, predicted she would do a good job representing a “complicated riding” that includes wealthy enclaves like Rosedale and lower-income pockets like St. Jamestown.

“It’s a big riding that represents a lot of diversity,” said Rae, who was interim Liberal leader before Trudeau took the reins and was Ontario’s NDP premier from 1990 to 1995.

These byelections were a test of the opposition parties, as much as they were a verdict on the government.

And last night’s close count in Toronto Centre means that Liberals and New Democrats can both claim some encouragement to keep on fighting for dominance as the real “government-in-waiting” as the 2015 election approaches.

At the NDP gathering on Monday night in Toronto Centre, McQuaig said the result “wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for.” But she congratulated the party for putting up “an incredible fight.”

“We knew this was a Liberal stronghold and it would be an uphill battle, and it was. We fought on. The real point is, what happens in 2015.”

“We did better than we’ve ever done in Toronto Centre,” McQuaig said, with a big smile. “Consider this just a trial run for the real thing.”

Although she promised to support the NDP in the next federal election, she sidestepped questions from reporters about whether she will run again.

Earlier in the evening, many said they felt as if they had secured a victory, even before the final results were tallied.

Garry Sran, a volunteer for the NDP, said it was important to “send a strong message in this riding.”

“For too long, the Liberals have taken this riding for granted, and people are fed up. The same old policies have done nothing for this community. This community wants affordable housing, they want better jobs,” Sran said.

Fellow volunteer Eric Guerbilsky said the support for McQuaig would send a clear message to Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau: “You might try to speak to progressives in Canada, but the Liberals have not acted for progressives in the past. We’re here for progressives.”

Olivia Chow, NDP MP for Trinity-Spadina, said she “badly” wanted to win here.

“I really badly want a national transit strategy so we can solve traffic gridlock. This riding is important, but the NDP haven’t won the riding or a long time,” Chow said. “But tonight is really sending a message to Stephen Harper.”

With files from Robert Benzie, Allan Woods, Rachel Mendelson and The Canadian Press

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